Su Blackwell is a master papercut artist. She is best known for her intricate paper sculptures that emanate from books. Her work appears in many of the A-level book art exhibits around the world and has been used for various book and magazine covers.
Last holiday season Blackwell moved from the confines of the codex to design the set for the Charles Way adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale The Snow Queen at London’s Rose Theatre.
Given that much of her book work is derived from the realm of fairy-tales and folk-lore, the leap to the stage to illustrate a Hans Christian Anderson fairy-tale seems like a natural evolution.
Each set design was made by hand, on a small scale, out of paper first before being turned over to the production team to recreate, scaled-up in canvas. On the process Blackwell says: “It was quite a restrictive way of working because the Rose is a circular theatre, so everything is on view and you haven’t got the advantage of hiding part of the set away”
As one can imagine the devil is in the details when creating such elaborate work. But as Blackwell says “The detail is what brings it all together, the magic element.”
From The Independent, Artist Su Blackwell makes the cut on The Snow Queen Sue Blackwell’s website